66 ROOK PEPLER. 



beautiful whistler; and its movements, whether in the aviary or the 

 more limited expanse of an ordinary cage, are exceedingly droll and 

 amusing. 



It is reported by M. Alfred Rousse to have bred (Je connais un 

 cas de reproduction), but he gives no details; from which we may 

 conclude that it was not in his own aviary the nesting took place. 

 However, as these birds soon get very tame, it is not unlikely that 

 they may have brought up young, and the success not have been 

 recorded. 



Dr. Max Schmidt, Director of the Frankfort-on-the-Maine Zoological 

 Gardens, had a female which laid four eggs, and brooded them care- 

 fully, in a hollow place on the floor of the aviary. In their wild state, 

 however, they breed in hollow trees, like most of their congeners; 

 so that nesting on the ground on the part of the bird in question 

 was probably the result of necessity, rather than of choice. 



In their wild state they feed principally on the ground, where they 

 chiefly eat not only the seeds of the indigenous grasses, but also different 

 kinds of insects, especially white ants, which live in the decaying 

 trunks of fallen trees. In captivity they are content with a diet of 

 millet, canary seed, and oats. Hemp is apt to produce indigestion, 

 and should not be given, except in very small quantities now and 

 then, for a change, and chiefly in winter, if the birds are kept out of 

 doors; but if they are lodged in the house, it had better be withheld 

 altogether. 



Dr. Russ says of this bird, which he names Psittacus melanurus in 

 his "Handbook", page 205, and Psittacus anthopeplus in the "Fremd- 

 landischen Stubenvoger''', page 151, that "its food consists not only 

 of seeds, but also of blossoms, buds, and honey, which it licks or sucks 

 from the flowers of the white gum trees, and in captivity it requires 

 sweet ripe fruit'''; which is certainly, as the doctor is fond of saying 

 in regard to many statements made by other writers, "ein Irrthum." 

 It is best dieted as we have mentioned above, and when wild feeds 

 as we have described. 



The female bears a general resemblance to her mate, but the oliva- 

 ceous yellow of his plumage is represented by a greener hue on her 

 back and wings; and the under side of her black tail is distinctly 

 shaded with rose. The young are like their mother, but lack the rosy 

 tint on the tail. 



The Rock Pepler is about the same size as the King Parrakeet, 

 but has even a longer tail than the latter, which it x-esembles in its 

 habits more nearly than it does Barraband's Parrakeet, with which it 

 is usually classified, under the common generic name of Polytelis. 



